22nd August
We awoke just before 7 am to blue skies and warm sunshine. Perhaps summer has finally come! We had our first cuppa while Chris checked that we were still good to go around 8.30. After we had washed and dressed and had our breakfast, we began to get ourselves ready to leave. Others were doing likewise, but a couple of boats on the next Visitors’ Pontoon were struggling to get out as there was not enough water yet. We decided to defer leaving for about half an hour to make sure we did not get stuck in the mud. Once our rafted neighbour returned to his boat, he untied from us, allowing us to make our cautious exit from the marina. Within a few minutes, Carole had tidied the lines and put the fenders away. We then made our way under engine towards Beachy Head (the wind was a very gentle F1 coming from dead ahead so no good for sailing). However, as soon as we rounded Beachy Head, we were able to get the sails out fully and turn the engine off, which made for a very pleasant hour’s sail. Just before we made the turn into the channel leading into Eastbourne lock and marina, we put the sails away and the engine back on and radioed in to the marina. Once in the lock, we were joined by half a dozen other boats waiting to enter. Within a few minutes, we were tied up securely on to one of the visitors’ pontoons. We had some lunch then visited the marina office to check in and get our security fobs activated. We were then able to enjoy hot showers in a very quiet shower block before returning to the boat to chill-out for a while.
To wake ourselves up a bit, we took a stroll round and out of the marina to take a look at tiny baby clothes in Matalan. Our little great nephew, William, is still in hospital in London, having come into the world very early and Carole is looking forward to going up to see him on her return home. We made our purchases and walked back through the area with lots of different plants and bushes and wondered yet again what that smell of curry was (we checked out quite a few leaves and couldn’t find it). Carole prepared supper while Chris planned tomorrow’s journey to Ramsgate and after we have eaten and cleared away, we had a game of cards and listened to Radio 2. It was soon bedtime and after setting our alarm for 6:15 am, we settled down in our bunks for a quiet night.